Today’s Headlines

• ASX 200 shrugs off early losses as CBA cheers. Up 2 to 6016.
• High 6023 Low 5996.
• Banks strengthen on CBA results.
• REITs do well. Miners slip.
• Healthcare and telcos weak.
• AUD steady at 76.50c.
• US futures up 37.
• Asian markets mixed with Japan down 0.27% and China CSI dup 0.78%.

STOCK STUFF

Movers and Shakers

• BIG -9.56% profit takers move in.
• BTT -5.76% disappointing results.
• WEB -3.07% Executive rights plan.
• VAH +12.82% AGM presentation.
• FXL +5.26% recovering.
• WBC +0.31% despite court stuff up.
• RIO -0.67% rumours of lithium purchase.
• PLS +4.49% lithium reigns supreme
• KDR +8.00% SQM potential deal with RIO.
• CGC +3.87% favoured agri stock.
• A2M -1.03% milk prices fall in NZ.
• NCZ +7.41% environmental authority issued
• SM1 -1.83% NZ milk prices.
• HVN +2.45% shorts covering.
• DMP +0.06% AGM comments on 20% NPAT growth
• Speculative stocks of the day: TYX +50.00% after reporting high grade gold structures at Greenewood Gold project in WA. 22m @4.03g/t from 50m. More results pending.
• Biggest risers – PLS, FXL, BKL, CGC, MLX, CBA and WSA.
• Biggest fallers – BIG, COE, BTT, CLQ, MAH, SWM and CLQ.

TODAY

• James Hardie (JHX) -% Has announced it will acquire German based building materials group Fermacell for (US$549m). The company has said the acquisition allows for a “robust growth platform for expanding its fibre cement business into the large and affluent European market.”
• Ardent leisure (AAD) -% CEO and Managing Director, Mr Simon Kelly has announced his resignation. CFO, Geoff Richardson to become interim CEO. The company has also said it is “trading broadly in line with expectations for FY18 Core EBITDA”.
• BT Investment (BTT) -% FY18 Net profit came in up 3.8% to $147.5m. A final dividend of 26c was also declared.
• Telstra (TLS) -% ACCC announced that the company will be offering 42,000 customers refunds, free exit contracts or new plans after admitting that maximum NBN speeds were promised but not delivered. The ACCC also found that many customers were affected by limitations on fibre-to-node connections, meaning they were paying more to get higher speeds but weren’t receiving them. The telecommunications Industry Ombudsman said recently complaints about services under the NBN rose by 160% last month.
• Nufarm Limited (NUF) – Has announced it will acquire a European cereal broadleaf herbicide portfolio from FMC Corporation (FMC) for US$85m.
• Virgin Australia (VAH) -% reported an $18m improvement in first quarter underlying pre-tax profit compared to the same period a year ago and said revenue increased 5.7%.

ECONOMIC NEWS

• Morgan Stanley analysts have boosted their oil forecasts by 17% amid a massive rally in crude prices. The analysts now expect Brent crude to be at $US63/barrel by the middle of 2018.

BOND MARKET

ASIAN MARKETS

• Nissan cut its annual profit forecast to 645bn yen from 685bn forecast earlier after announcing a recall of vehicles in Japan that went through an inspection process deemed faulty by the government. Nissan conducted vehicle inspections that don’t comply with Japanese regulations for almost four decades.
• Tongwei plans to spend 12 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion) to build two solar-cell factories that would make the Chinese firm the world’s biggest manufacturer of products that generate electricity from the sun.
• In China data today, exports increased 6.9% in dollar terms in October from a year earlier, the customs administration said Wednesday
• Imports advanced 17.2%year-on-year
• Trade surplus was 254.5 billion yuan (US$38.3 billion).
• Retail sales of cars, SUVs and multipurpose vehicles increased 2.7% to 2.3m units last month. Honda sold 132,807 cars in the same month, a gain of 14%, benefiting from new models including the Avancier.

• President Trump called on the world to abandon support for Kim Jong Un’s regime, saying the dictator has turned North Korea into “a hell that no person deserves.”
• Shares in Tencent’s e-book subsidiary China Literature rocketed 81.8% after trading in Hong Kong opened in the biggest tech IPO in the market in ten years.

EUROPE AND US MORNING HEADLINES

• A year tomorrow Donald Trump was elected. Much has been achieved so far. How’s he done?

• Will Theresa May make it until Xmas? Looks unlikely with yet another scandal hitting UK conservatives.
• Sky has warned it could close down Sky News if it proves a sticking point with regulators in its £11.7bn takeover by Murdoch-owned 21st Century Fox.
• UBS believes that global growth may already have peaked due to a slowdown in China and the US shale producers spurt finishing. It forecasts global growth will stay at 3.8% per year in the years ahead, with the US picking up a touch to 2.3% in 2019, the UK slowing to 1.1% and the eurozone slowing from 2.3% this year to 1.7% in two years’ time.

And finally………………

Man says to God: “God, why did you make woman so beautiful?”

God says: “So you would love her.” ”

But God,” the man says, “why did you make her so dumb?”

God says: “So she would love you.”

 

A worldwide survey was conducted by the UN. The only question asked was: “Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?”

The survey was a huge failure.

In Africa they didn’t know what “food” meant.

In Eastern Europe they didn’t know what “honest” meant. In Western Europe they didn’t know what “shortage” meant.

In China they didn’t know what “opinion” meant.

In the Middle East they didn’t know what “solution” meant.

In South America they didn’t know what “please” meant.

And in the USA they didn’t know what “the rest of the world” meant.

Clarence

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